The first remote-controlled vehicle I ever used was my uncle’s U.S. Army tank back in first or second grade. Throughout elementary and high school I had r/c race cars, but NKOK’s line of Halo-inspired remote-controlled vehicles has just succeeded in taking me back to my r/c roots: the r/c specialists have begun selling a Halo Scorpion Laser Battle Tank. And let me tell you, controlling a tank is just as fun as I remember from grade school, if not more.
NKOK’s Halo Scorpion Laser Battle Tank is approximately 11 inches long by eight inches wide, and all along its length it’s painted with subtly changing colors to indicate the wear and tear that a workhorse like this would incur in battle. It is called a “battle” tank, after all. But while the size is nice, it’s really what’s on top of its six-inch-tall body that really impresses: the rotating turret.
Simply having the turret rotate isn’t impressive in and of itself, although it is a nice touch for anyone who expected the manufacturer to cut corners. What’s impressive is that its rotation enables owners to really experience the functionality built into that little-but-authentic turret. The Battle Tank is chock full of infrared sensors and emitters, and one of them is inside the 90mm High Velocity Cannon. Get up to three of these tanks going at once (they use tri-band infrared technology), and you can have some serious infrared shootouts.
The emitter on top of the cannon can be aimed at the front or side of any opposing tank, which in turn has a sensor to indicate whether it’s been hit. The front of each tank also has four red LED lights beneath the driver’s seat to show how many times the tank has been hit by an enemy’s light beam. After it’s been shot four times, the tank is disabled. That’s a recipe for some intra-room tank battles for sure.
Controlling the tank is a relative breeze as well, with four independent treads (not wheels) that can be put in forward or reverse sing the remote control. The left control moves the left-hand treads forward and back, while the right control moves the right-hand treads. To turn quickly or spin, just move one direction backward while the other is pressed forward. The vehicle does seem to respond a bit better on hardwoods, vinyl or concrete than it does on carpet, but it may have just been the tightness of the carpet we have here.
One of the sacrifices of the infrared beams and independent treads is the number of batteries required to control the Halo Scorpion Laser Battle Tank. The tank itself requires s AA batteries, while the control needs one 9-volt battery. Also, I read one report about a person not having much luck getting their infrared beams to register in those multi-tank shootouts, but we didn’t encounter that problem ourselves.
The first time I controlled an r/c vehicle, it was a tank. The first time I felt truly powerful in Halo was when I hopped in the Scorpion for the first time and waged a one-man war. It’s nice to finally combine those two firsts with a new remote-controlled toy. NKOK’s Halo Scorpion Laser Battle Tanks are a bit hard to find, but if you can nab one or two, I definitely recommend it for the hardcore Halo fan.
Click this link to buy the Halo Scorpion Laser Battle Tank
from Amazon, which is one of the only places we’ve been able to find them, online or off.
- Score: 8.3
— Jonas Allen
